“Just after talking to their GM and assistant GM I thought this was the best opportunity to play most of the year up here,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t have the best camp I wanted to. I had to go down to Portland, work hard.”

Kennedy, however, didn’t last long in Portland, a place he starred with the Pirates as an AHL rookie with the Sabres in 2008-09. He has one goal and six points in 20 games with Phoenix.

Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, who believes Kennedy had a good camp, called him “a real good find for us.”

“We fell into injuries and we started using him, and he’s kind of earned his ice time,” Tippett said. “He’s a player that can play quick. His tenacity on the puck is really good. He’s fit in pretty well with Hanzal (and) Vrbata because he can make a good play. He’s fearless going to the net.”

That quickness and fearlessness, along with some versatility – attributes that helped Kennedy compile 10 goals and 26 points in 78 games here in 2009-10, his only full NHL season – has helped Kennedy stay up most of 2013.

“I can play wing or I can play center,” Kennedy said. “The league today, it’s just getting faster and faster. So you have to play with speed, and I think that’s what I bring to the table. I play with speed, skill and just grit.”

“It’s unfortunate what happened here,” he said. “The staff that was here, they gave me my chance and they gave me my break. … Things were going rough here for a while, and they really changed it really quick. I was actually shocked when it happened. I didn’t think it would happen that quick in season. But it did. They seem to be turning things around here.”

Tonight will be Kennedy’s fourth game against the Sabres and his third here as an opponent. He still makes his offseason home in West Seneca.

“It’s still special playing here,” he said. “It’s just another game on the road.”